Students analyze and interpret the accompanying large-format images of Mars taken by NASA’s Mars Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) camera. The analysis involves identifying geologic features, calibrating the size of those features, and...(View More) determining surface history. The lesson culminates in students conducting in-depth research on questions generated during their analyses. The lesson is part of the Mars Education Program series; it models scientific inquiry using the 5E instructional model and includes teacher notes and vocabulary. Next Generation Science Standards are listed.(View Less)

Students use the research topic questions generated in the earlier lesson entitled, “Mars Image Analysis,” to refine testable questions and develop hypotheses. The lesson is part of the Mars Education Program series; it models scientific inquiry...(View More) using the 5E instructional model and includes teacher notes and vocabulary. Next Generation Science Standards are listed.(View Less)

This is a lithograph that outlines the major mission highlights of the Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, mission, a Small Explorer Earth-orbiting spacecraft that is designed to map the distant boundary between the solar wind from our Sun and...(View More) the interstellar medium, the material between the stars. Short educational activities are included on the back of the lithograph. Learners will use a ball to represent the Earth to investigate the concepts of size and scale in relation to the IBEX mission: the size of the Moon compared to Earth, the distance from the Earth to the Moon on the same scale, the distance to the farthest point in IBEX's orbit, and the distance to the Sun and the edge of the heliosphere, also on the same scale.(View Less)

This educational wallsheet illustrates Newton's First Law of Motion. In the related activity, students will discover the properties of inertia and motion, and see how they have very important real-life applications. The activity includes background...(View More) information, pre-activity reading, pre-activity discussion questions, an assessment, and post-activity extension activities that tie student observations back to the Swift satellite. This is the first of four posters on Newton's Laws.(View Less)